Why Marketing Foods to Children is Wrong

According to a study in Health Affairs, U.S. children snack almost three times a day and get about 27% of their daily calories from snacks.

Not surprisingly, desserts and sweetened drinks are the most-popular between meals snacks.

Surprisingly, though, 98% of children reported snacking in the last survey about it in 2006, compared with only 74% in 1977. The long-term implications for eating, obesity and health in general from this information should be apparent even to the most closed-minded business apologist.

Part of the problem is the way the food industry has gotten around its own promises to limit marketing unhealthy foods to kids. But the government may have no choice except to look into mandatory restrictions on marketing to kids similar to the ones in the U.K. following the publication of a Yale University study about the advertising of unhealthy foods to children. Researchers found that cross-promotions targeting kids increased 78% from 2006-2008.

Yet during this time, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) had promised an effort by the food industry at self-regulation would decrease advertising of unhealthy foods. Food marketers, both CPG houses and restaurants, formed the high-sounding Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative promising to limit advertising and marketing of unhealthy foods.

Yet the Yale researchers assessed nearly 400 products marketed to kids, and found only 18% met accepted nutrition standards as based on "Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools." The study found the use of third-party licensed characters and other marketing cross-promotions has soared, including tie-ins with TV shows and movies, athletes, sports teams & events, theme parks, toys and games, and charities. Worse, 65% of the offending products were from members of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.

I feel like Claude Rains in "Casablanca" who announces while standing in his favorite nightclub casino how he's shocked to find gambling going in in Casablanca (while picking up his winnings from the craps table).

The study’s authors fairly beg for government regulations similar to those in the UK, where the Office of Communications (Ofcom) has banned commercials to children under 16 that tout high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) foods and drinks, broadcast at any time of day or night on any network. As an incentive for manufacturers to reformulate their products, foods that fall below the "bad" thresholds set by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) can be advertised without restriction.

Despite the fanatical belief of capitalists that free markets will regulate themselves, it's clear that CPG houses and fast food restaurants simply can't give up the teat of selling to kids. I have no "appetite" for government regulations limiting what adults or children CAN eat. But I think any effort to combat the negative, harmful, unhealthful messages being spoon-fed children by the food industry is simply an unfair fight.

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